Fayyad to Israel: Come Back to the Table

The Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister calls Israel to resume peace talks despite the unilateral move at the United Nations.

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Elad Benari, 02/12/12 04:33

PA Prime Minister Fayyad

Israel news photo: Flash 90

The Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister is calling on Israel to resume peace talks with the PA, despite its unilateral move at the United Nations.

"Instead of wasting too much time and thinking it’s the end of the road, we should use what happened two days ago and build on it," Salam Fayyad told Israel’s Channel 2 News on Saturday.

"For us it's not the end of the road. Israel should stop frowning because of the upgrade in the UN and express protest and anger and worse, threaten with retaliation,” Fayyad told Channel 2. "There is no doubt that it is not helpful. If Israel will carry out the threats, as we see that it is already doing in light of the declaration about building 3,000 housing units, it will significantly hurt the chances of realizing a solution of two states for two peoples.”

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's move at the United Nations this week has “buried the Oslo Accords”, according to various political figures and that is why peace talks with him are not on the agenda.

The move to be "recognized" as a state, although symbolic, was made without agreed upon borders or a declaration of peace and is essentially a hostile step. Furthermore, when Israel agreed to a ten-month construction freeze in order to promote peace talks, Abbas chose not to come to the negotiating table and instead imposed more preconditions on talks with Israel.

Fayyad himself recently chose to attack Israel and blame it for the PA's financial troubles, despite the fact that Israel assists the PA financially just several days ago, before the UN vote, transferred money to the PA to pay its employees’ salaries.

Abbas himself recently told Channel 2 that he had no intention of trying to regain his childhood home in the northern town of Tzfat (Safed) in Galilee, which was liberated by Israel in 1948.

He also reiterated his acceptance of the Israeli state within the 1949 Armistice borders that preceded its defeat of combined Arab armies in the 1967 Six Day war.

After his remarks sparked huge protests in Gaza, Abbas quickly retracted his statements. His own spokesman said that the Palestinian Authority certainly has not given up the demand that Israel allow the immigration of several million foreign Arabs who claim Israel is their home.